Monday, January 14, 2013

Yesterday I purchased a sweater at a store I would normally window shop at as a joke, but they were having one of those "take an additional 60% off sale items" sales, so I got lucky. At the checkout, the clerk said, "There's nothing like cashmere," and I said, "Yeah, except for when you wear the same sweater every day and then it gets all pilly and you have to comb it to death," and then she said, "Well, I guess... if you wear it around the house?"

What!? Do rich people who shop at stores like that have secret "around the house" wardrobes that don't include their softest elephant print sweaters? Is that how they get rich? No, is that how they stay rich?

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When I was doing laundry the other day, I realized I probably have more "around the house" clothes than I do nice, outside clothes. But that's because I don't throw anything away, unless it develops a large hole or the neck gets so low/wide I'd flash [my cat]. (And even then, if it's comfortable, I might still have it somewhere.) I may only have one cashmere sweater, but I am rich in lounge clothes!

(For the record, I'm not an asshole who hoardes it all -- I do end up donating a lot of nice stuff, especially nice but not-right-for-me BRAS!!!, which are a very important donation item, ladies are you donating your bras?!)

@iknowright Where do you donate your bras? I have about 10 bras that are in good condition that I do not wear anymore due to a bra fitting revelation and I have been wondering what to do with my old ones. Some of them have hardly been worn because they were purchased shortly before said revelation happened.

@iknowright By the time I actually get rid of a bra, even a woman who has fallen upon the hardest of times would scream at the sight of it. BUT if I ever actually start getting rid of bras before they begin to disintegrate, I will absolutely donate them!

@This is my new username I've donated to this organization before: http://freethegirls.org/about/bra-drop-off-locations/ and also to the American Cancer Society during a breast cancer awareness drive, but yeah, Goodwill or Salvation Army will gladly accept them.

@HeyThatsMyBike Some of the bras I've donated look a little overused, for sure, but I've donated to some places that will repair them or use them for something else (like the first org. I mentioned above). But as someone who was walking around with a bra with only one side padded and a big hole in the back....I feel ya.

Quiet annoying self righteous annoying liberal point: Salvation Army is quite heavily homophobic. Stick to goodwill, or other charities of choice. I give to a low-income elder-care center's second hand store. They write handwritten thank you notes! It's the best.

@iknowright I try very hard to exercise straight from work a couple times a week but whether I come home sweaty and gross or just come home and have no plans beyond making dinner, I dip into my seemingly never-ending reserve of big and out of style jeans and millions of camis. But no bra, no chonies.

Maybe she meant, once it's too pilly, you only wear it at home? I used to go to a lot of those pay per pound/bag thrift store sales and they were always rife with cashmere. I always bought any cashmere I found, even if it was a weird color or size, and use as loungewear. Now that I've typed that out, I somehow doubt that is what she meant.
Also, were you at Chico's? You can tell us.

@Emmanuelle Cunt These places are sadly not what they used to be, but I grew up going with my grandmother/mother/aunt to the garment district in Boston - they had a dollar a pound section we would go to every Saturday morning. This is not a normal family activity, I realize. Over the years it's gotten smaller and smaller and basically shrunk to nothing. But the clothes come out in these huge bales and everyone runs for them and it's really gross and weird and I grew up being completely mortified/totally obsessed with it.
Here in NYC Housing Works started something similar a couple years ago, $20 for a bag of clothes, same deal with the bales of clothes/grossness/aggression, but they recently moved to a smaller warehouse and changed the rules and now it sucks so I don't go anymore. RIP free clothes.

@Emmanuelle Cunt Look for Goodwill Outlets in your area, my local one is $1.25/pound and I have like, 8 cashmere sweaters I've scored there. Leanne is right about them being gross and weird, though (then again, I like gross and weird).

@Leanne
Wait, I'm pretty sure it is still a thing to do here in Boston. There's a shop in Kendall Square called The Garment District, and they have a gigantic floor area where you more or less wade through the used clothes, pick out what you want, and it's either 25 cents or a dollar a pound -- can't remember exactly how much, but you definitely pay the the pound.
Is that related to what you're remembering, perhaps?
(I made off with a little boy's Cambridge baseball team t-shirt and a pair of red corduroys!! It was great).

@crocuta Me too! It doesn't bother me at all but when I describe it I typically get a "OMG SHE TOTALLY HAS LICE" type non-verbal reaction. Duh, I wash or dry clean everything before I wear it. But I've also found knives in piles of clothes, so, you know. Not for the faint of heart.

@harebell That is in fact the place! If you go, I highly recommend waiting in line before they open on Saturdays, when they put the new bales out. Wear leggings and a close fitting top so you can try stuff on over your clothes, and sift through your bags/try things on after you've completed your rummaging.
It's now $1.50 a pound, I'm seeing on the internets, but this is still rather affordable.
http://www.garmentdistrict.com/departments/dap/index.htm

@Leanne Gloves. Gloves! I touched some unclean underpants one time and while it did not deter me from the Goodwill bins, I definitely became A Person Who Brings Dishwashing Gloves With Them to Places, because you never know.

@aphrabean I tried this! But I realized quickly it slows me down when determining cashmere vs. the hairs of the acryl or similar, and went back to bare hands. So far, zero communicable diseases contracted. That I'm aware of.

@Leanne In Montreal we have a vintage store called Eva B's that has a big pile of clothes for $1 each. It is definitely equal parts "this is fun I am digging for treasure in a giant pile of clothes" and "is my skin itching because of real or imagined bugs?"

@Emmanuelle Cunt The blinds on our big front window broke, & we are slow to replace them, so the whole neighborhood can see basically our entire house. We could put up curtains, but I'm just not that fazed by the neighbors seeing my butt occasionally if they happen to be snooping. Sorry/not sorry.

@hallelujah Hahaha I recently moved from a 20th floor apartment with no one across the way, to a 4th floor apartment with (old ladies) directly across from me, and I kept forgetting I couldn't walk into my bedroom naked without curtains like, forever. But now I have curtains, will not be killing any old ppl with my bewbs.

@Emby My downstairs neighbor got a date cause he walks around his apartment naked. He is on the first floor, but you can't see him from the street level, however if you live across the street on the 4th floor you get a show. The woman ran into him on the street and mentioned that she could see him cooking naked, and somehow they ended up going out.

I have leggings and a tunic that I got so that I could change into them when I got home and still be wearing something I could claim as clothing when the delivery guy brings me my tacos. Except the taco guy can't figure out the instruction to go through the side gate and ring the bell, so I just leave my work clothes on so that I don't freeze when I have to go out and find the confused man in the apron.

@Summer Somewhere Chicago! I actually moved from New York (with a month and a half hiatus at my parents') and my lord I have never lived somewhere with such a sad, sad excuse for good Mexican. I mean, everything else was awesome, but I pined for enchiladas.

@Slutface
Oh yes -- the sweaters that are slowly being reduced to a pile of yarn by snagging cat claws, and the sweatpants that will never see sunlight again because they are now made mostly of cat hair.

@iceberg Maternity clothes, yes, except around the house and also out of the house, because 4 months post-child not even CLOSE to old clothes. I assume I'll be in my maternity clothes the rest of my life.

@hallelujah i still wear a couple of mine out of the house. don't worry! 4 months not nearly long enough to lose the weight. don't even think about it for like a year (is what i wish someone had told me).

@hallelujah I remember feeling like "welp, this is my body now" and just being miserable becaus I didn'r know how to clothe it and I felt awful, and then I honestly don't remmeber how long it took but the weight suddenly went "shloop" and was gone, like magic. I want you to miss out on the misery part!

I am fortunate to have a casual workplace now, but when I was an impoverished temp, I would change my clothes as soon as I got home from work so as not to stain or wear out the few nice, work-appropriate clothes I had/could afford.

It's hilarious to think of rich people doing the same thing I did when I made $8 an hour.

@SarahP I am no longer an impoverished grad student, but I am still klutzy as fuck, so I change out of my work clothes as soon as I get home or else I'd probably be shopping every weekend to replace whatever I ruined with spaghetti/chocolate/by stretching out.

@SarahP I still do this, but mostly because my house lounging clothes have much simpler laundry needs than my work clothes. Anything that requires hand washing (ie delicate cycle) or cannot be put in the dryer does not get worn at home.

@Lisa Frank My old Manhattan apartment was that way, too! We had central heat in the building and it was largely filled with geriatrics who constantly complained to the controllers of heat that they were cold. And thus, my roommates and I wore shorts and tanks and had the windows open at home all winter long.

@Lisa Frank Wearing summer stuff at home cuts down on laundry. Last year I only had to wear warmer stuff at home after they turned the heat off in spring, rather odd after months spent in summer dresses.

@Lisa Frank my Winnipeg apartment is the same way; even when I close the radiator valves they are still super hot and I have to crack the window a tiny bit just to make it bearable. It's a delicate balancing act between hot as balls and cold as fuck. I feel bad about wasting the heat but I have no control over it at all- the sensor for the whole building is in another suite, so there's not much to do besides close the blinds and strip down.

Pajama pants and a sweatshirt/oversized tee/tank top, depending on the temperature. I have so many oversized t-shirts, many from high school which was a ridiculous number of years ago, but they're sentimental and I can't throw them away. Pajama Game 1992!

@fondue with cheddar: I have a "Deadhead of the Charles" shirt from 1988 featuring dancing bears holding oars; it is so worn that the decal is actually starting to disintegrate within the shirt, and all the little bears' oars fell off. Also, I used to be a Deadhead, and kind of an asshat.

The only tissue-thin shirt I still have is actually not even in my possession because I only half-own it and it doesn't fit me anymore. When I was in high school we spent 4th of July weekend in Wildwood, NJ with my mom. We went in a t-shirt store and my mom said she'd buy each of us a shirt. We both picked the same one, a Faith No More shirt with the old "We Care a Lot" design on it. My mom refused to buy two of the same shirt and neither of us would back down, so we ended up with one shirt we were forced to share. That was fine for a year, but when I went to college we didn't live in the same house anymore. So I took it to college with me, and we decided that I would give it to him for Christmas that year, and he would give it back to me the next, and so on. But then my boobs got huge and now he refuses to give it to me because I'll stretch it out.

@fondue with cheddar Tissue-thin shirts are the best for wearing around the house. My house T-shirt belonged to an ex-boyfriend. He wore it when he was a kid (so...early '80s?) and it says WARLOCK on it, though most of the actual warlock illustration has fallen off.

@nowwhat Tissue-thin shirts are definitely the comfiest, but I can't wear them around the house because my boyfriend would never leave me alone unless I wear it with a bra. And the best thing about lounging around the house is NOT having to wear a bra, so that kills that. :(

@Sarah H. This same thing, right here, and I call 'em comfy pants, too. The only time I don't put on the comfy pants is when I know male friend is coming over after work - however, if i will be home for more than an hour before he gets there, all bets are off and I put on the comfy pants.

@Sarah H. That's what my boyfriends calls his too! And I am so glad he does, and glad he puts them on, because I know he understands! For a while, I wondered if he worried that I didn't even know how to be dressed in real clothes. His old comfy pants were so funny: a pair of black sweats that once had those elastic ankles, which he cut off. That left him with some frayed Robinson Crusoe-looking capri pants (which he then started referring to as his capris because of me, which was awesome).

Yoga pants with a hot pink waistband with skulls on it that I got at the Big Fat Flea last year, and then whether I change my top depends on how nice it is and what I'm wearing for dinner. But I come in the door and the work bottoms come off, especially since I don't want to risk my tights.

@anachronistique Yeah, when I used to not be able to wear jeans to work, the pants would come off immediately, mostly to prevent cat hair from collecting on them - nice pants are like a magnet for cat hair, whereas my jeans are always fine. I also waited until the last second to put them on in the morning for the same reason, which meant I was running around getting ready for the day bottomless. In my house that's called "donald ducking". If you're wearing just pants with no top, that's "mickey mousing".

@highfivesforall Donald ducking and mickey mousing! You are 100% correct.

I once had a dry cleaner gently ask me to stop throwing my clothes on the floor before I brought them to him, but the truth was, I just left them on after work and let the cat on me. That's when I started changing immediately.

I have a flannel cocoon dress that I wear around the house with tights and slippers. I often put a huge sweater on top. Sometimes two huge sweaters, for maximum coziness. I like to think it looks cute but in reality, I look like I'm being swallowed by the Abominable Textile Monster.

My around-the-house wardrobe shifts DRAMATICALLY according to the seasons. When it's warm outside, I look cute around the house! A camisole with microscopic shorts, or a comfy sundress, or even a negligee type thing if I want to feel glamorous (because why not? It's my house and I can be glamorous if I feel like it!). Then winter comes around. And my apartment doesn't get a whole lot of heat. So from November through March, I'm dressed like Rudy Huxtable preparing to go out in a blizzard.

@werewolfbarmitzvah As a fellow dweller of a nearly-unheated apartment, I can tell you from experience that a hot water bottle in between sweater one and two only adds to the coziness (and the bulkiness, but meh). Assuming a heatin pad would do the same thing.

It never fails to astonish me how different dudes & ladies are. Just to make sure I wasn't crazy, I did an informal survey of all my dude friends:

"Yo, do you change clothes when you get home?"
"Like, from the gym?"
"No, just like, in general."
"I mean, if it was raining or something, then yeah, I don't want to sit around in rainy clothes."
"No, like, pajamas?"
"What? No dude. Why would I put on Pajamas?"

@leon s Yeah my boyfriend totally doesn't get there. Literally the first thing I do when I get in on the evenings is get into pjs. And he'll be there all dressed up in his work clothes, sometimes even work shoes and I'm just like 'ugh, how can you be comfortable?'

@leon s For me it's less about comfort (though that depends on the clothes) and more about preserving the clothes. If I can minimize the exposure of my nice work skirts and pants to spills or tears, I will. Because I am clumsy and messy.

@Jane Marie It depends on my evening plans at home, I think - if I'm going to cook dinner or be somehow productive I typically remain in my work clothes, because, work clothes = working, but if I'm just sitting and watching TV on my cream colored velvet couch (which I'm terrified of staining) I wear house-only pajamas. And put a blanket down over it. I'm extremely laid back and relaxed.

@iceberg - hmm toddlers are intesting. Sometimes when dude-friends i have lived with have had to go non-casual to work, they'll take off their tie and change from slacks into jeans, and just walk around in jeans and an undershirt?

I go kind of semi-caz (tech-company casual), in that I often wear jeans, a blazer, and a shirt and tie, and honestly, sometimes i will leave everything on until the night is officially over. I think maybe this is also because we are single dudes, and there is always a chance that someone will be like "meet me up at enid's/warsaw/wherever, things are awesome tonight", and then we get to roll up suited?

i think the answer honestly is that we just don't think or work too hard, because peter pan syndrome, and even in our 30s now, we still feel like we are play-acting in our business clothes and find it kind of funny.

@leon s - Also, sometimes I do like to eat my dinner w/ a tie on, because it is 100% true that if you drink a big glass of whiskey w/ a tie on, it is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than drinking a big glass of whiskey in your underpants, ceteris paribus.

@leon My husband definitely only wears sweatpants around the house. He may even be faster at changing into them than I am. Of course now that he works mainly at home, he hardly gets out of them either.

I cannot STAND to wear outside clothes (no matter how comfortable they are) in the house if I'm going to be home for longer than, like, forty-five minutes. I have a whole range of house clothes and pajamas. I have pajamas I only wear to sleep and then I have t-shirts/tank tops/sweatshirts/pajama shorts I wear as "house clothes" but not sleep in. On the weekends, I will even change from whatever I was sleeping in into "house clothes" when I wake up, often. I also can barely stand to wear shoes inside any indoor establishment, basically, unless it's like a store or something obviously.

@leon s Two items ladies tend to wear to work more often than gents: Bras and pantyhose. If you have never felt the sudden intolerability of your bra or pantyhose you will not understand the need for immediate removal of said items in the house.

@leon s My boyfriend thinks it's HILARIOUSLY weird that I change from my office pants into yoga pants as soon as I walk in the door, but dress pants are torture and anyway, he changes too, he just does it because his work clothes stink of various machine fluids and are covered in dirt.

@iceberg Yeah, my husband works for a software company and wears shorts and t-shirts to work, so he doesn't really feel the need, I guess, to change clothes when he gets home.

I, on the other hand, cannot get out of the business casual fast enough, and usually make a beeline for the yoga pants, smelly t-shirt, and hoodie. I don't find that my work clothes are all that comfortable, and I definitely don't want to lay around on the couch in any of them.

@MilesofMountains YES WHY ARE WORK PANTS SO UNCOMFORABLE. (Let's ignore the fact that I need to lose some weight and that is the reason the waist cuts into my gut, but whatever.)

@leon s I never used to change clothes when I got home from my day, but then I started trying to buy nice quality grown-up clothes and not wear like, jeans and t-shirts and hoodies every day, and I realized that if I want my nice grown-up clothes to stay looking nice and grownup instead of covered in stains and lint and wrinkles and tiny mysterious holes, I needed to change out of them before doing basically anything at all at home.

@martinipie - Oh, I mean, it makes perfect sense. Even mid-tier, formality wise, lady clothes seem way more uncomfortable than like, a suit (which, suits are actually not uncomfortable at all once you get used to them, being a dude is nice & easy).

It's just a funny thing I never really thought about all that much. I always assumed it was a weird coincidence and had to do w/ the kind of girls that hung out at my place a lot / lived w/ my friends. I never stopped to think about why or it being a universal thing.

@leon s My boyfriend wears my sweater at home. He calls it his "house sweater" or his "lady sweater" interchangeably, but he WILL NOT wear it out of the house. (He also makes a very pained face and noises about eminent domain whenever I try to claim it back.) We are a no-pants household, in general, so walking through the door = removal of pants, regardless of gender.

@leon s My dude works from home. He gets dressed to come over to my house, and if my roommate is gone, he immediately changes out of his jeans and into the "comfy shorts" he leaves at my place. So he is "dressed" for the seven minutes it takes to drive to my house plus the three it takes to convince me we should stay in for the evening.

@Ellie Are you ME? I, too, am equally as obsessive about my "house clothes." Just last night, before bed, I changed from one pair of black yoga pants to a different pair of black yoga pants in which to sleep. SO, who is relatively new, just looked on strangely. But when I got into bed he just kissed my forehead, bless his heart.

@leon s "Sometimes when dude-friends i have lived with have had to go non-casual to work, they'll take off their tie and change from slacks into jeans, and just walk around in jeans and an undershirt?"

@leon s Ok, I think it's definitely a product of not having to wear dress pants to work, then. All of the men I've lived with or dated whose jobs required business casual had a rather large collection of PJ pants or basketball shorts for house lounging! I lounge in yoga pants and men's sweaters, myself (i've basically been living in this one every weekend since Christmas). On casual fridays, though, when the boyf and I both get to wear jeans to work, neither of us bothers to change into PJ pants or yoga pants, respectively, until it's actually bed time.

@Ellie I also have pajamas and House Clothes. Although, in my case it's because I'm slightly allergic to the cat and it's just a good idea to not wear things covered in cat hair (he's a shedder AND a cuddler) to bed. There's also the fact that I prefer lighter pajamas than I'd be comfortable in if I'm up and about, because I like lots of blankets on the bed. So in the winter, the shorts and worn out t-shirt are not going to cut it if I'm hanging out on the computer or on the couch- I'd be way too cold.

@leon s For me, taking off my bra at the end of the day and putting on non-work pants is as much of a signifier for my body that the day is done as drinking a beer. If I'm wearing something cute and know I am going out after work, I'll keep it on.

@Lily Rowan Cats are most definitely a game changer. Even you plan to go out later, if you leave the nice clothes on you will need to spend forever lint rolling all the hair off. It's easier to just change.

@leon s I never had "house clothes" until my SO. Barring sweaty/dirty activities, whatever I put on in the morning (including shoes) just stayed on me until bedtime. I didn't know anyone did it any differently until I started dating SO, but I came to the dark side and have never looked back.

@martinipie I can't tell you how many times I've told myself I need to keep my bra on because I need to leave the house again in 20 minutes, but I walk through the door and that mofo is off my body until I'm walking out again.

@martinipie You just reminded me of one time when I was a teenager and my mother came in from work complaining about how her bra had been driving her nuts all day. I'm talking *hurling* the purse away with one hand while unhooking bra with the other, stomping through the house on her way to the kitchen trash while removing bra under shirt, and *flinging* it into the trashcan, narrating a lecture on the evils of elastic all the way.

It hadn't seemed odd in the slightest before that, which is why it was only by random chance I looked into the trash and said "Um... that's mine".

Pyjamas. I never feel like I can fully relax and put the work day behind me until I get out of work clothes. Pjs tend to be flannel bottoms and a variety of oversized tshirts. And I always try and have one day on the weekend be a pjs day where I don't get dressed at all and just lounge around all day.

Yeah I change out of my real clothes the second I walk in the door. I go straight upstairs and put on my pajama clothes. Some are actual PJs, some are more like t-shirts and sweatpants. As a bonus, this keeps my clothes from getting covered in cat fur.

I have this pair of stretchy pants I wear that I think were actually intended to be sort of dressy? But the kind of dressy that doesn't involve zippers on your pants, obviously. I can't actually bring myself to wear them out of the house, owing to their stretchy non-zipperness, so now they're my classy house pants. I pair them with a random assortment of t-shirts that also don't leave the house.

Keep taking your pilly cashmere sweaters to the secondhand shops, ladies, so I can buy them for $10 and then restore to like-new condition with my $15 sweater shaver. Seriously, how are people even buying and wearing sweaters without this amazing invention?? <3 u, sweater shaver!

@This is my new username Pretty much anywhere. Here's one on Amazon, but you can also find them at Walmart, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, etc. Absolutely get one, they are life-changing!
http://www.amazon.com/Remington-Battery-Operated-Fabric-Shaver/dp/B0034BV6KA

As soon as I get home I change into leggings, longish t-shirt, cardigan and flip flops (or hand-knit socks/slippers depending on how cold it is). Depending on who else is home and how close to bedtime it is I might dispense with the bra, too (I feel weird going braless at, like, 6pm, but if it's after 9 when I get home I'll freeboob). Roommate, however, will keep on not only her work clothes (and she's a dress/tights/belt/heels sort of girl) but her SHOES when she gets home from work and I just do not understand that sort of blatant disregard for comfort (and laundry - part of why I change as soon as I get home is so I don't get dinner/chores mess on my good clothes).

@Jinxie I do NOT understand this. At all. How can you keep your SHOES on? And all your clothes? I once saw my roommate get dressed including shoes to go downstairs and make himself breakfast and my brain nearly exploded.

@Ellie The breakfast thing I can sort of understand - I get dressed before making breakfast on weekdays because if I'm running late I can skip breakfast at home but I can't skip putting on clothes/makeup, you know? The shoes, though, they're the last thing I put on right before I leave and taking them off is the first thing I do when I get home. Aside from the comfort factor, I've got roommates, downstairs neighbors, and hardwood floors and I figure I should do what I can to mitigate noise.

@Ellie I HATE being barefoot or only wearing socks, so I always have shoes or slippers on at home. I used to keep my shoes on until I went to bed, when I was younger and there was the possibility of having to dash out to some fabulous bar or party (or, more likely, Walgreen's run.) Now that I'm a bit older and have nice hardwood floors I change into slippers. I have cats, so my apartment is a minefield of cat litter granules/cat puke and stepping in either of those things with bare or socked feet is so gross.

@Jinxie Oh, no, I agree in general - I should have specified that this was on a weekend morning after we had a party. It was mostly the putting shoes on I was perplexed by.

He actually does sometimes hang around in his bathrobe in the weekend morning which makes me really nervous as to not knowing whether there's anything under it.

@Faustbanana - I have "gross socks" I wear to walk around the apartment (I live with college students, floor is literally sticky) and "nice socks" I wear on the compulsively vacuumed, dry and wet swiffered floor of my room. But I don't really mind being barefoot in either place. With cats it makes sense though.

@Ellie Yes--to the point of bare feet in the winter (and higher heating bills because of this thing). If it's too cold (or I've just lubed up my feet with lotion), those fuzzy Muppet-looking socks that get grungy really fast but it's OK because they're always in cheap bins at cosmetic stores. I finally got rid of a pair of big old Wigwam socks that I had since high school, which I attended in the mid-'80s (we had to wear them for cheerleading! How? They are so thick that we had to size up on our sneaker-saddle shoe hybrids!). But for Apartment Socks, they were pretty good.

Before I was a professional lady-blogger, I worked at a quantitative hedge fund with a dress code known as "race to the bottom." The sloppier you looked, the more you were paid. So I've been wearing exactly the same, crappy things, since 2005.

@Nicole Cliffe This is an interesting tidbit, I had no idea that was a thing! I'd like to copy my son and wear pajamas, then something cute, then take off my pants to eat because of the mess, then a new shirt because the mess was even bigger than expected, then a new pair of pants after the drool happens, and basically go through three cute outfits in the day. A whole lot easier when your pants cost like $5 because they are so, so tiny.

My favorites are my 10 year old Old Navy velvet pants and whatever old t-shirt happens to be on hand. And an Old Navy stretchy, super comfortable bra without any demonic underwires. ON seriously has the best loungewear and cheap workout gear. Nothing else I've ever bought there has fit in the slightest, however.

I recently upgraded to a never version of the same velvet pants and customized them by hacking two inches off the legs so they don't pool around my feet. It was a banner day.

Also that sweater is amazing, I would wear it constantly until it was so pilly you couldn't tell they were elephants. And that's why I can't spend several hundred dollars on a single clothing item, I'd just ruin it.

ETA: although you apparently only spent $64, that's way more reasonable.

I collect j crew cashmere sweaters on the extra 30% off sales and wear them to work everyday (I cannot wear work-jackets, they make my shoulders cranky). when they get less than professional-looking, they are retired to Weekend Wear; when they look like saggy pilly messes, they become jammies. When I start to just hate them, they become napping foundations for my cat. Recycling!

I work at a casual office, so the only change I usually make when I get home from work is taking my bra off immediately if not sooner (sometimes this happens on the drive home from work).

On the weekends or working from home days, I wear awesome gray cotton sweat pants that have ripped down the leg along the pocket seams, but I wear them anyway because whatever.

These are usually worn with a wifebeater men's undershirt (FUUUUUUUUUUU PATRIARCHY! I can't believe I still say "wifebeater"!) so tatty that it can't be worn in public, or a shirt so worn that you can see my...bits...but who even cares because old clothing=soft clothing=more important to me than not having bits showing because it's my house goddammit and you can't tell me what to do!

I always change when I come home. Usually take my contacts out at the same time. It's winter so I'm wearing T-shirts/fleece layers on top, flannel pajama pants on the bottom. The louder the pants pattern the better.

@area@twitter My go-to house-pants are Old Navy men's pj pants that have boston terriers blowing pink bubble-gum bubbles on them. Yesterday, I had to resist buying a pair with lobsters. Old Navy is the Mecca of ridiculous loungewear, and ridiculous loungewear is the key to contentment.
A year ago I decided to stop buying clothes unless I needed them for work (business-y) and I cannot buy more kooky-crazy pj's until these fall apart 100%. House tops are t-shirts that used to belong to the men in my life, that shrank too much to fit them. These t-shirts are often also ridiculous. The work clothes are usually black or gray. Since I am not buying jeans/non-work tops, and the current ones are getting ratty and being thrown out, my work vs. home clothes divide is pretty far apart indeed.

@Spaghettius! For sure on the Old Navy PJ's...my most beloved were my "cakey booty" pants (as my husband dubbed them.) They were bright pink with these weird goth Tim Burton-style cakes all over them. I loved them dearly but my thighs rubbed a hole in them which made me so so sad. Now I have "pill bottle booty" which are actually covered in these stylized coffee cups but they really do look like prescription pill bottles. I also have amazing sail boat covered pants (but they may just be "amazing" because I bought them a size larger and they are possibly too comfortable.)

One thing I cannot abide is just wearing a t-shirt around the house. My boobs aren't huge but they need support so I usually wear a shelf bra tank top to lounge and/or sleep. And the only ones I like are only sold at Nordstrom Rack.

As a newly unemployed, I get fully dressed every morning. Immediately after I got axed, I bought a nice-ish toothbrush and stockings even though I wanted to buy sweatpants. I'm hoping this will stave off the sad.

I live with a man who puts on real pants with a zipper and button the minute he gets out of bed. I, on the other hand, refuse to put on anything with a real (read: non-elastic) waistband unless I'm leaving the house. He sees this as some sort of moral failure on my part, but you, my people...you have made me feel normal. Thanks to all.

@polka dots vs stripes Ugh, thank you. I'll be thinking of this thread the next time that scandalized expression flickers across his face. And in my head I'll also be saying, "Hey, at least I don't leave body/beard hairs all over the tub and soap, buster."

I have an awesome sitcom-granny-esque housedress that I use sometimes when I want to channel my grandpa's late wife, usually if I have to do some chores in my ~regular~ clothes. Rocking the Mrs. Roper realness.

Usually though after work I just change into something with an elasticated waistband from Old Navy. Booty shorts in nice weather, sweats now that it's chilly. Socks under flip flops if my toes get cold.

Also, I just read an article that said you must wear a bra IN YOUR SLEEP or else you will have droopy breasts. From what my former boss (plastic surgeon who is paid to know breast facts) told me, this is not true. Our breast tissue just changes with age and no amount of round-the-clock bra wearing will keep the tissue young and buoyant. I choose to believe him, because I can't sleep in a bra or even in one of those tank tops with the shelf bra built in. Bras!

@raised amongst catalogs I will definitely take the droopy boobs. My reward for exercising after work is that I don't have to put a bra back on after I shower, rather than taking it off when I get ready for bed. It's the only thing that's gotten me to exercise lately.

@raised amongst catalogs I'm team "hoist 'em up", I can't sleep with them all floppin' around, gotta keep them "on the shelf"(bra built into my tank top.) I won't wear a regular bra for longer than absolutely necessary but I also feel weird if my boobs are just free floating. I mean, I do think there is SOME truth to it, in that the skin around yo boobs isn't being stretched through them hanging loose all the time. Eventually, that skin isn't so elastic anymore and would result in more sagging, right? I don't really care either way but I'm just more comfortable.

@raised amongst catalogs Yeah, there is basically no actual way to prove that is true, not to mention it doesn't make any real sense (you are not sleeping standing up, so gravity is irrelevant), so might as well be comfortable.

I wouldn't/couldn't open the front door, should the doorbell ring, wearing most of my at-home outfits. Especially in the summer. My neighbors/their children/strangers would see my boobs, as most of my clothing is very thin or old. Not as bad in the winter--lots of layers and sweats.

I must say, last winter, fueled by a recent breakup and living by myself for the first time ever, I got really into "nice" sweatpants. Thick, fleece-y, wide waistband, long enough so your ankles never get cold sweatpants. My newfound passion was only limited by my lack of drawer space.

Huuuh. I'm a self-employed lady workin' out of our extra room, so I've never really considered the work clothes vs. around-the-house clothes. I feel like I'm missing out on this important daily psychological transition from 'productive work' time to 'sigh in relief because I don't have to email cranky customers until I put on real pants tomorrow morning' time. Huh.

@VolcanoMouse My first year of college I was very religious about changing to begin doing work on the weekends. I would leave my pajamas on while I had coffee and read the paper and stuff and then change into "real clothes" (stockings, skirt, sweater) when I started doing homework or being productive or whatever and it was definitely for the psychological transition. I also used to leave my clothes on whenever I was doing work in the evening. But I never did it again after that first year though. Weird.

I don't wear street clothes in the house very often. This is a hold-over from both umpteen years of Catholic school where my mom mandated that uniforms come off as soon as you get home and also from living several years in a place where doing laundry was inconvenient at best. Changing into At Home Clothes means that I can usually get multiple wears out of Public Clothes before they really need washed (provided I didn't spill anything on them or get very sweaty for some reason). So I hang around the house in track pants and t-shirts mostly. Bras are sometimes things- if I've already left the house, I'll usually leave it on, but I don't usually put it on until I get ready to go out. I put jeans/pants with buttons and zippers and cleaner/less beat up shirts on to leave the house. I also don't wear shoes in the house. Socks, yes, in the winter, but shoes come off as soon as I come through the door. Jeans are a close second- they're really remarkably uncomfortable once you're not used to wearing them around the house.

Does anybody (everybody?) else also immediately put clothing worn to a movie theater into the washing machine? Even if my jeans are still good for a few more wears, I can't stand the thought of putting movie theater clothing back on my body. I also, um, have to wear a hoodie to the movies because no thank you, not putting my head/neck/hair on that seat.

@raised amongst catalogs try WORKING at a movie theater. You know that kind of stale buttery popcorn smell at most theaters? Stay there long enough and pop enough popcorn and that smell gets absorbed into hair and clothing :(

@amarz Ugh, awful! I *almost* feel you on this one because I was a barista about a hundred years ago. As much as I love the smell of freshly brewed coffee, there is something nauseating about going home and getting in the shower and having the stale coffee smell reactivated by the heat/water. Also, I would blow my nose after work and coffee grounds would come out. ETA: Not trying to one-up you; just saying I totally get it!

In summer when I bike and come home sweaty I take a shower and immediately throw on one of the many crappy old sundresses I have lying around. In winter, a hoodie and flannel shorts with slippers. I don't always change right away after work, but after a certain point I'm just sick of my underwire.

My at-home wear consists of yoga pants and a series of ratty tank tops. Occasionally I mix it up with my fleece "sleep pants" featuring the Grinch. My husband used to scoff at me for changing into my cozies whenever I got home from work, but this Christmas I got him some comfy flannel pajama pants. He tried them on and then looked at me, wide-eyed, and whispered "So THIS is why you always wear cozies! They are so... comfortable...amazing..." And now he is converted, and we both wear snuggly pajamas and watch too much TV. Marriage is fun!

I LOVE around-the-house clothes! I have a thrilling selection of caftans, leggings, giant shirts and nightgowns that I change into the moment I arrive home from work. I really miss college days, though, when my two roomies and I would lounge around smoking cigarettes in thrift-store muumuus all day long. I don't know how the vintage muumuu thing started, but I sometimes wish for a time machine to go back and glory in the ridiculousness again.

@wee_ramekin have you been spying on me? I come home from work and have to decide if I'm feeling more leopard print caftan or giant, norma kamali schmatta from kmart. by taking some bit of pleasure in lounge clothes it makes me feel like less of a slob...also, I am practicing for awesome old lady-hood a la Advanced Style.

@mynamebackwards In summer I wear a shifting selection of lightweight dresses. My favorite is a navy jersey racer-back maxi with racing stripes up the sides. I look so athletic lying limply around in the heat.

I normally just wear the same clothes at home as I do when I'm out and about; that said, my clothes are on the casual side, and I wear jeans to work all the time (thank you, small informal charity job), so it's not that big a deal. I generally change from tights into pyjama bottoms, though, because tights are so uncomfortable.

I have one or two things that get the title "Apartment Sweater." Even the BF now knows what I mean when I say, "Where is my Apartment Sweater?" The original is a horrid (yet not) drapey thing that has not holes, as are my usual, but runs! The sweater got runs! While I might wear an Apartment Sweater out here and there, they're mainly my go-to after work, and are paired with one of those built-in-bra spaghetti strap tops. Apartment Sweaters should be baggy but not look like I am a child wearing my dad's shirt.

I knew I had gone completely off the rails recently when I went shopping to purposefully find a new Apartment Sweater; it seems counterintuitive because they really should be kind of beat up. But I took care of that part in about two weeks flat. And I will not stop calling them by that name even though I recently purchased a condo! Also, even though I meant to, I didn't give up Original Apartment Sweater.

@Hellcat Also, Apartment Jeans. These are Levi's I buy two sizes too big so I don't even have to unzip them when I have to pee (though I do sometimes have to hold onto the waist when I run downstairs for the pizza man). Why this is important to me, I don't know.

Also, all jewelry (except earrings and nose ring; I never change those so they stay there) must come off once I am in for the night! I don't know why I find it irritating to have on in the comforts of my own home when I am fine with it all day at work or wherever. This causes me to wonder what I will do if I ever have a wedding ring.

Since I work from home much of the time, I actually wear at least semi-nice clothes around the house in order to make myself feel like a real, grown-up person who must get her work done. I know many work-from-homers prefer to wear writing muumuus, or stay in their nightgowns, or what have you, but I will just eat crackers and look at pictures of other people's apartments on the internet if I don't put on a pair of pants.

@Mrs. Grundy I do, however, have a beloved ratty old cardigan that my girlfriend constantly threatens to throw in the garbage, and which I only wear around the house. But that goes OVER the nice, real clothing. For some reason...

My grad-school roommate and I discovered that in Iran, there are house clothes that people wear the MINUTE they are home. There are amazing vintage shots of the Shah receiving dignitaries in his.

This made us VERY excited, because the minute we stepped through our own doors, the FIRST thing both of us would do is go directly to our rooms, take off whatever we were wearing, and put on our 'house clothes": Mine consist of jersey harem pants raygun used to make but don't anymore and I should have bought 50 pairs, and one of four totally disgusting hoodies. Hers were Israeli fisherman pants she bought about 12 pairs of when she lived in Israel and a tshirt.

We would do this even if we were home for about 15 minutes. As long as I am inside for more than 5 minutes: houseclothes. The only difference moving in with my boyfriend and his 3 male housemates has made is that house clothes now, tragically, involve a bra. Still no underpants though. Underpants are strictly for out-of-house wearing only.

as soon as i get home,be it for an hour or for the night, i immediately change into sweats and a tshirt. i love my clothes and i cant justify hanging on my couch in jeans or a dress ( so uncomfy) it keeps them looking new and i can relax better.